On Friday, in Istanbul, in presence of high-level governmental Moldovan and Turkish officials, Moldova-Turkey Economic Forum took place, dedicated to development of trade relations and intensification of cooperation between Moldovan and Turkish companies.
Minister of Economy of Turkey, Nihat Zeybekci, and Minister of Economy and Infrastructure of Moldova, Chiril Gaburici, opened the Forum.

The two ministers spoke about the need to intensify bilateral economic relations, supporting maximum use of the opportunities opened by the Free Trade Agreement between Moldova and Turkey, which came into force on November 1, 2016. Further, there were opening remarks by the president of the Union of Chambers of Commerce and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), Rifat Hisarciklioglu, and general director of Moldovan Business People’s Association (BPAM), Alexandru Baltag.

In his speech, Alexandru Baltag stated that this forum is an excellent opportunity to inform Turkish partners about the business environment and investment opportunities in Moldova.

"To us, Turkey is an extraordinary market, full of opportunities, with remarkable economic development. We wish to have closer relations with the companies from your country and to contribute to intensification of economic flows in Black Sea area", said the BPAM general director to forum participants.

Further, as an expression of the wish to have closer business relations between Moldova and Turkey, general director of MBPA and the president of TOBB signed a Cooperation agreement between the two business associations. According to the agreement, valid for 2 years, parties will organize together conferences and seminars on business topics, will exchange information of mutual interest, will promote the interests of business environments of the two countries.

The discussions at the Forum took place in 3 sessions. One of the was dedicated to presentation of economic realia, business environment and investment opportunities from Moldova, the other one - to presentation of Turkish economy and Turkish companies, and the last one - to the analysis of implementation of Free Trade Agreement between Moldova and Turkey.

About 40 Turkish companies and 14 Moldovan companies were present at the Economic Forum Moldova - Turkey. Together with minister Chiril Gaburici and Alexandru Baltag, Vitalie Iurcu, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, Cristina Harea, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Moldova, Vadim Ceban, first deputy chair of the Executive Committee of ATU Gagauzia, as well as a number of business people from our country were part of the Moldovan delegation.